'Under The Dome' Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: Hooray For Hoarders!

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So far, each of episode of "Under the Dome's" second season has contained some kind of terrible, mysterious threat. Like magnets, butterflies, or a particularly lethal strain of swine flu.

And in every instance, the people of Chester's Mill have bounced back without any noticeable change in demeanor. Acid rain doesn't stop them. Having most of the town obliterated by magnets is barely worth noticing. Whatever the horrifying weekly crisis may be, these Chester's Millians can roll with it.

Unless Big Jim is put in jail. Under those circumstances, it'll take exactly one night for the entire town to transform into a bloodthirsty rabble, this kind that can only be answered with deadly force. Okay, maybe the townsfolk were steamed more over the potential genocide plot than over Big Jim's arrest, but in discussing it, Big Jim's incarceration came up way more often than "hey, we were almost all dead!"

Except, for once in Chester's Mill history, Big Jim isn't the town's top violent lunatic. No, this week, with "Reconciliation," that honor goes to Sheriff Phil, who put a man in the ground to protect Big Jim, was then fired, and then realized he could steal most of the town's food supplies while only murdering a small part of the town.

Ignore, obviously, that people would notice that Phil was curiously not starving, while all others were, and that Phil couldn't even bother to keep the door to his secret food stashed closed or hidden in any way. Phil had the beginnings of a plan, and that was more than enough to get a bomb together and declare himself official dictator of all town foodstuffs.

And for a show like "Under the Dome," which usually ranges on a spectrum of "dumb" to "catastrophically, world-ending dumb," seeing Barbie take down Phil's men was surprisingly competent. There were a couple cool fighting moves, and everything was shot and choreographed to make Barbie's military kung-fu stand out.

This can only mean one thing: from now on, every episode of "Under the Dome" should consist of the characters punching each other, and nothing else, for an hour each week. It can't be more ridiculous/laughable/hilarious than what we already have, right?

But with Phil dead (so long, Phil) and Julia happening upon a convenient stash of hoarder foodstuff gold, it looks like the town's "dying of starvation" problem has been officially fixed. And in only four episode! Was this not supposed to be a season-long arc? Apparently not, unless the writers have some serious cop-outs planned for us next week.

Here's another question- the town's sudden food and bomb and Big Jim crisis seems to have solidified Julia as the new Chester's MIll leader. But should a leader be so quick to pardon the two people who just tried to genocide the entire town?

We all know Rebecca's not going to be doing any more killing, given her remorse and "Under the Dome's" tendency to be as subtle as a WWE match. But Big Jim probably has more nefariousness hidden on his person. It's probably best if we just let him sit in jail for a little while.